Social media is a wonderful thing – pretty much anything can go viral if it is deemed interesting enough. As a result, we get to know new things, are entertained my amusing items and delighted by yet others. Then again we come to know about things that are shocking and dismaying; things that can and should make us think. This cop video below went viral; and this one really should not amuse us:
This video of the fighting policemen went viral
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg7r56Jf6mU
So why are these guys fighting? According to an Indian Express report, the two cops are fighting over bribe money. They are clearly so involved in their fight that they either don’t know or don’t care that they are in full public view and that they are being filmed. Other policemen step in to try and separate the two. Now grown men fighting in public over something trivial would appear silly to us, maybe prompting a guffaw or two. But this is neither trivial nor funny.
Why the video is shocking and upsetting
All those who have been thinking that corruption in our country has reduced in recent times would be dismayed by this video. Not only is the trend of bribery institutionalized, but taking bribes is alive and well, there is still no particular shame attached to this. These men clearly don’t care who knows that they have taken a bribe; they are more concerned that they should get their share of the ill gotten gains. The fact is that corruption is still very much a part of public life and few of us will hesitate to give or take a bribe if it is expedient for our purposes.
The fact that the very people charged with preventing crime indulge in such petty criminality routinely is troubling; the fact that we dismiss corruption among the police as a given, is even more troubling. This is because as a society we still attach no stigma to bribery and people continue to give and accept bribes without remorse or shame. The video of two men in khaki pummeling each other in full public view for a share of a bribe is dismaying evidence of this fact.
Author – Reena Daruwalla
